Chapter 11........Engaging Students in Performance Assessment and Reflective Learning

Key Topics

High Stakes Testing..........

Involving Students in Learning Assessments

Teacher Evaluation and Student Feedback Surveys.........

e-Portfolios..... .

Professional Learning Networks (PLNs)

Student Participation Systems and Online Polls.................

Civic Engagement & Community Service...........

High Stakes Testing

National Resolution on High-Stakes Testing, a nation-wide petition against schools over-relying on high-stakes tests as an assessment approach.

The Case Against High Stakes Testing from FairTest.

Involving Students in Learning Assessments

Go to Conversing section of Democratic Teaching on the resourcesforhistoryteachers wiki for ideas about:

• Traditional assessments
• Alternative assessments
• Rubrics
• Portfolios
• Peer and Self Assessments
  • See Special Topic Page on Quizzes As Active Learning Resources

Teacher Evaluation and Student Feedback Surveys

Teacher Evaluation

• NCTE Position Statement on Teacher EvaluationApril 21, 2012
• Teacher Performance Assessment Consortium
• Value-Added Analysis is defined as the impact that a teacher has on students test scores.
  • For more, see the Los Angeles Times series, Grading the Teachers

Student Feedback Surveys

See Conferring with Students for information on students giving feedback to teachers about their teaching

• Includes examples of Student Feedback Survey Policies and Practices for the following states:
  • Massachusetts
  • Connecticut
  • Georgia
  • Hawaii
  • Kentucky
  • Arizona
  • Ohio
  • Arkansas

Image from Texas Tech University, College of Education

e-Portfolios

e-Portfolios for Learning

Developing Portfolios to Assess Student Learning from Carleton College

Student Portfolios as an Assessment Tool from Education World

Professional Learning Networks

Building a Professional Learning Network and Avoiding Information Overload, Torrey Trust, January 2013

• The Connected Educator: Building A Professional Learning Network, Torrey Trust (July 2012)

7 Tips for Building Collaborative, Fearless PLNs

My PLN Saved My Career offers one teacher's perspective on networking with colleagues in education.

Student Participation Systems

Poll Everywhere: A Teacher Describes Her Experiences


12 Tools for Quickly Gathering Informal Feedback from Students features Apps such as Poll Everywhere and UnderstoodIt.

50 Free Collaboration Tools That Are Awesome for Education.

Using Student Response Systems in a Greek Mythology Unitfrom the Montgomery County. Maryland Public Schools

Make Just One Change: Teach Students to Ask Their Own Questions. Dan Rothstein & Luz Santana, Harvard Education Press, 2011.

For research on the value of repeated quizzing to support student learning, see

• Stuart Singer, "From a Teacher's Perspective: Test, Test, and Then Test Some More" The Principal Difference (National Association of Secondary School Principals), February 9, 2011.
• Carolyn Y. Johnson. "One Way to Curtail a Wandering Mind During Class: More Testing." Boston.com, April 2, 2013.
• Jeffrey D. Karpicke and Janet R. Blunt. "Retrieval Practice Produces More Learning than Elaborate Studying with Concept Mapping," October 2010.

Online Polls

For one easy-to-do create online poll, see Straw Poll

• See Special Topic Page on Quizzes As Active Learning Resources

Involving Students in Learning through Community Service and Civic Participation

Participatory Politics: New Media and Youth Political a 2012 study from the MacArthur Research Network on Youth & Participatory Politics found that a significant number of young people are using new technologies to engage in civic and political activities.

For more see the website of the Civic Engagement Research Group at Mills College.

Click here for information on the Edward M. Kennedy Service America Act of 2009 from the Corporation for National and Community Service.